CS2C, which sounds like a Star Wars protocol droid, is a provider of operating systems and office products. It will develop and sell cloud-computing for large enterprise clients such as online retailers, banks and government ministries.

Sandy Gupta, general manager of Open Source Solutions Group at Microsoft is the bloke in front of the cameras on this one and he says that the cloud platforms will be for Windows-based computers as well as for Linux and Unix systems.

Gupta said the potential market in China could include government entities such as the Beijing city government and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture.

For Vole it has the advantage that it does not have to deal directly with governments which might cause it political problems at home. It has teams on the ground who will do business like the locals while at the same time still using its software.

The cooperative effort could serve be used by Vole to introduce similar cloud-computing projects in other emerging markets such as India and Brazil, Gupta said.